MATLAB: Box plot y-axis

box plot

How can I make a box plot for the data in "trials" but have the "outcome" on the y-axis? If I re-size the axis I get only a portion of the box plot.

trials=[98    72    79    50    58    38    17     9     3     3] 
outcome=[1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9    10]

(read: on 98 trials outcome 1 came, on another 72 trials outcome 2 came)

Thanks a lot!

Best Answer

Is this the sort of thing your looking for?

x = arrayfun(@(a,b) ones(a,1)*b, trials, outcome, 'uni', 0)
x = cat(1, x{:})
boxplot(x)

(Though given the skewedness of your data, a histogram might be a better choice for visualization).

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Customising the boxplot with data points.

Well, you could have just tried it. That is often the best approach. But you may just not know how to use the hold command.

X = randn(100,1);
boxplot(X)
hold on
plot(1,X,'o')

Were it my choice, I might have used a histogram on the side instead. For example, split the window into subplots.

MATLAB: How to fill by color the paired boxplots

You could use the "BoxStyle","filled" name-value pair.

Note that, since the data is random, my plot won't look the same as yours.

% Raw data
a=rand(10,8);
b=rand(10,8);
X1=[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8];
% Original
X2=[1.3	2.3	3.3	4.3	5.3	6.3	7.3	8.3];
boxplot(a,'positions',X1,'labels',X1,'colors','b','widths',0.25,'BoxStyle',"filled")
hold on
boxplot(b,'positions',X2,'labels',X2,'colors','r','widths',0.25,'BoxStyle',"filled")
hold off
set(gca,'xticklabel',{'#1','#2','#3','#4','#5','#6','#7','#8'})

By the way, with a little effort, you could create a grouped boxplot with one call to boxplot. You just need to set up your grouping variables.

% format data
data = [a;b];
data = reshape(data,10,16); % Columns alterante between a, b
G = [ones(size(X1)); 2*ones(size(X1))];
G = G(:); % Indicate column group (1=a, 2=b)
x = [X1;X1];
x = x(:); % indicate x group for each column
boxplot(data,[x,G],"ColorGroup",G,"BoxStyle","filled",'colors',['b' 'r'])

One final comment. There is also a boxchart function which does not require any toolbox to use. It is a new function that also creates box plots, but has a slightly different syntax and appearance.

When using grouping, the inputs must be vectors. code for that might look like this. For more, see my answer here.

data = [a;b];
G = ones(size(a));
G = [G;2*G];
x = ones(size(G,1),1)*X1;
figure
boxchart(x(:),data(:),'GroupByColor',G(:))

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Customising the boxplot with data points.

MATLAB: How to fill by color the paired boxplots

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